SONIA O'SULLIVAN's problems deepened yesterday when she failed to make any impression in a 1,500 metres race in Sheffield won in exhilarating fashion by Britain's Kelly Holmes.

O'Sullivan was hopelessly adrift as Holmes embarked on a sub-60 seconds last lap to win going away from the American, Suzy Hamilton in career best figures of three minutes 58.07 seconds in the grand prix meet.

Although almost eight seconds outside the world record held by Qu Yunxia of China, it was quite the fastest 1,500 metres run of the season and establishes Holmes as one of the favourites for gold at this distance in the World Championships at Athens in five weeks time.

O'Sullivan, unable to decide whether to go with the early pace or attempt to come out of the pack at the bell, did neither and was never a factor in the race at any stage.

The early pace set by the Russian, Larisa Mikhaylova, was ahead of record schedule as 5he took the field through the first quarter in 62.32 seconds. Remarkably, the second lap at 68.29 seconds, was almost six seconds slower, but it picked up again when Holmes surged into the lead at 900 metres.

Hamilton alone attempted to respond to that extra injection of pace but, as it transpired, she too was killed off by the Briton who, last month, established a new world record for the 1,000 metres event at Leeds.

In the most highly-publicised race of the meet, Canadian Donovan Bailey won the £50,000 winner-take-all first prize with an emphatic victory over Linford Christie in the 150-metres race.

Bailey, slow out of the blocks and third out of the bend, blasted to victory with a dazzling turn of speed over the last 50 metres to win in 15.01 seconds with Britain's Ian Mackie second in 15.25 seconds and Christie third in 15.27.

It was the third time Christie, the 1992 Olympic 100 metres champion and Bailey, the reigning Olympic 100 metres champion, had met over 150 metres in Sheffield, with Christie setting the world best of 14.97 seconds when he beat Bailey there two years ago.

But he was never in contention this time. "That was rubbish. I ran rubbish," he said.

It was Bailey's second lucrative win over the distance in a month and followed his $1.5 million pay cheque for beating American Michael Johnson in Toronto.

There were some good performances earlier on a cold and windy evening. American Mark Everett looked superb in winning the 800 metres from the front in one minute 46.54 seconds, with fellow American Rich Kenah, also heading for Athens, pipping Olympic champion Vebjorn Rodal of Norway into third place. Kenah clocked 1:46.83 and Rodal 1:47.13.

Another Olympic champion, Fernanda Ribeiro of Portugal, held off a determined assault from Gete Wami of Ethiopia and Paula Radcliffe of Britain to win the 5,000 metres in 14:53.25.

American Mark Crear, the Olympic silver medallist and the fastest man in the world this year in the 110 metres hurdles, maintained his impressive form with a clear-cut victory over Olympic champion Allen Johnson. Crear clocked 13.22 seconds, Johnson clocked 13.31 with Britain's Tony Jarrett third in 13.47.

Britain's Colin Jackson, the former world record holder and world champion was a disappointing fourth.